


Cat Got Your Tongue

by Jakallx



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Being a couple in the middle of a battlefield, Kittens, M/M, Omnic Crisis, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-03 21:25:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12756498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jakallx/pseuds/Jakallx
Summary: “What are you doing?” Gabriel asks.“Uh,” Jack’s smile becomes sheepish. “I heard a cry from over here and followed it. I thought someone was in trouble… so I went to help them.”“It’s a cat.”“Yes.”“You saved a cat.”Jack clears his throat. “Yes.”Gabriel pinches the bridge of his nose. “You are an idiot, Morrison.”A short fic involving two soldiers, one cat, and a whole lotta running from bullets written for the Reaper76 Skin of Our Teeth zine.





	Cat Got Your Tongue

_Commander, I need backup!_ Jack yells through the comms.

Gabriel’s heart leaps into his throat, then he’s up and running, straight for the distant chattering of Jack’s pulse rifle off to his left. He ducks and weaves through the ruins of the city, the sound of Jack’s last stand getting closer and closer.

A Bastion unit lays down heavy fire through the doorway of a collapsed building, the ancient frescos being blown to pieces by its turret. Two shotgun blasts into its exposed back and Gabriel leaps over it to skid through the open doorway, coming face-to-face with Jack Morrison.

The soldier holds a black kitten in one arm and his rifle in the other.

Gabriel looks down at the kitten and then back up at Jack.

Jack tries to smile.

“What are you doing?” Gabriel asks.

“Uh,” Jack’s smile becomes sheepish. “I heard a cry from over here and followed it. I thought someone was in trouble… so I went to help them.”

“It’s a cat.”

“Yes.”

“You saved a cat.”

Jack clears his throat. “Yes.”

Gabriel pinches the bridge of his nose. “You are an idiot, Morrison.”

“Look, it was a-a heroic misjudgement, ok?”

“A ‘heroic misjudgement?’ No wonder the UN gets you to do all the press bullshit.”

Jack’s growing smile abruptly turns into a frown as he spots something over Gabriel’s shoulder. “Speaking of press bullshit,” he mutters darkly at a small drone—completely illegal—hovering over the city rubble, its camera undoubtedly zoomed in on the kitten in Jack’s hands.

“Well, we’ve got no choice but to save it now.” Jack shoves the kitten at Gabriel, and hefts his massive pulse rifle.

The tiny black furball fits into the palm of his hand and its ice-blue eyes blink up at him with a fearful curiosity. Gabriel slowly turns to the news drone, stares into the camera for a full two seconds, and then rolls his eyes so hard he wouldn’t be surprised if they disappeared into the back of his head forever.

“Fine. We’ll save the goddamn kitten.” Gabriel makes sure he has a good grip on the mewling ball of fur and turns to Jack. “Cover me.”

Jack grins. “Always.”

They run out over the rubble, turning a corner into a wide corridor of collapsed buildings. The dropship up ahead hovers just above the rest of the Strike Team.

They were going to make it.

Or not.

Three Bastion units rise out of a hidden nest of rubble just in front of them, turrets slowly turning, about to spit bullets—

Gabriel doesn’t think. “Reinhardt, catch!” he yells as he launches the kitten towards the dropship. Then he has both shotguns out and jammed into a unit’s core, metal screeching as he pulls the triggers.

He doesn’t have time to watch it, but he knows it’s the throw of the century. A perfect judgement of velocity and physics that would take that ball of fur straight into Reinhardt’s arms. Gabriel hopes the press drone captures it because he wants to watch the replay later.

Unless there wasn’t going to be a later.

He stares down the barrel of a Bastion turret, and there’s no time to raise his shotgun, no time to even contemplate the end—

Jack dives in front of him and shreds the turret with his pulse rifle.

Gabriel’s mind freezes—falls into limbo screaming, _no, no, no, NO_ —while his body keeps moving, whips around to leap at the third turret, his face twisted in fury as he fires again and again, blowing the core to pieces. Then he’s next to Jack, who clutches his shoulder, teeth gritted in pain, but mercifully alive.

“Morrison, you are an idiot,” Gabriel sighs in relief while he offers his hand out to Jack.

“Yeah,” Jack says as he clasps Gabriel’s hand, “but I looked great while doing it.” He smiles through the pain and winks, giving Gabriel’s hand a tiny squeeze before he lets go.

“We’ll see how great you look when I’m through with you tonig—

_Commander, stop flirting and get your ass to the dropship now! We have hostiles approaching from the south!_ Amari’s voice cuts through the moment of relief and reminds him that he is still in an active war zone.

The two of them duck out from behind the rubble and run for the dropship, its engines kicking up the dust and debris from the broken city streets. Jack trips, but Gabriel reaches for his hand and manages to drag him forward while Amari’s rifle shatters the air again and again, destroying the unseen enemies behind them. They are barely twenty feet away from the ship when Gabriel feels the whisper of a white-hot munition round graze the air over his head. It explodes onto the dropship’s shields, hardlight hexagons rippling outward.

He heaves Jack headfirst through the shields and into the safety of the cargo bay, Jack managing to twist in mid-air and fire a set of helix rockets at the omnics behind them. Then Gabriel leaps off the final piece of rubble and rolls in after him, the dropship’s engines roaring as it takes off. He lies on his back, chest heaving.

“An excellent throw, Commander,” Reinhardt booms out and deposits a furry lump onto Gabriel’s chest armour.

“I’m gonna kill him, Jack,” he says to the quivering ball of fur.

Jack’s incredulous face suddenly appears above him. “Wow, that’s cold Gabe. Even for you.”

Gabriel sighs at the poor kitten who looks as frayed as his patience. “I was talking to the cat, Morrison.”

Jack opens his mouth to say something, then closes it again, looking for all the world like a bewildered goldfish.

Gabriel gently scratches the kitten under the chin with a finger—trying to ignore the way his heart melts at the gentle purring—and eventually looks up at Jack’s now thoroughly unimpressed expression. He grins and raises an eyebrow. “What’s the matter, Jack? Cat got your tongue?” 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for the [Reaper76 Skin of our Teeth zine (link)](https://twitter.com/r76zine?lang=en) and honestly can't believe I get to appear alongside so many other talented writers and artists. It's such an honour :3   
> Preorders for it closed a while ago but some of the artists will be selling copies (I'd also keep an eye on the twitter in case orders open again).
> 
> Thanks for reading! Hope you like it :)
> 
> You can find me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/Jakallx) and [tumblr](http://jakallx.tumblr.com/) and now [Mastodon](https://mastodon.art/@jakallx).


End file.
